Daily Derp: Two For One Derp

I admit to being maskless as I type this.

Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
Weak men create hard times.

The modern politician or individual probably sees themselves in the first two spots.

But in reality, we're more likely in the 3rd place.

Good times create weak men.

And the pandemic flushed this out very well.

We got back sure but it's not a life. Nor is it healthy.

Flatten the curve was code for wait for vaccine all along.

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Legault is out there talking like any other Incompetent Blowhard about the 'concerns' in rising cases.

If their 'plan' is zero cases, then they should man up and say so. Otherwise, they're stringing us along talking to us like we're children. In either scenario, it's infuriating because 175 cases aren't a crisis.

175 in a population of 8.4 million.

I find it interesting how all these leaders sound alike. To they send each other post-it notes exchanging the 'fear' threat of the day?

Now it's reinfections and OMFG long-term impacts. Like any other fricken disease.

I know a lot of us have perceptively noticed this and that's why I find this article interesting. I've been saying the same thing. Canada has been in the 300-400 range per day. If it's not about zero cases because 'it's impossible' then what is the 'acceptable' (read arbitrary) figure? 200? 150? 10? 1?

This is getting way out of hand and we need to reign it in or else we're really not going to get to a state of normalcy soon. And by normalcy, this includes public official toning the fear rhetoric done and telling us to wear masks during sex.

There's a good portion of the population that has accepted this as a great pandemic and I'm afraid we won't be able to walk them back from any ledge. But to those not sufficiently buying into the narrative, let's preserve our collective rational bearings and sanity.

They call it 'manageable transmission' I've been calling it micro-managing our lives. Either way, this (like the masks and lockdowns) will likely come with yet another set of unintended consequences.

What's utterly absurd about all this irrational prevention theatre is that it's way too late. The virus is out there. Not even stopping it in the fall will happen. It's a VIRUS circulating. I'm no genius or doctor but seems to me it's time to strengthen our inner mettle and barrel through this.

It's not the end of the world. It just isn't.

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON.

That should be the damn message.

Not blackmailing citizens and threatening them with lockdowns and school closures.

This is criminal. Not public health.

Healthy Skeptic:

"Finally, of course a softball mask question referring to a bogus model showing that mask use cuts cases by half.  The commissioner was restrained (because the mask mandate has zero effect in Minnesota) and said that “models are not evidence”.  I fell off my chair, which at my age is quite unpleasant and requires several minutes of crawling around in a vain attempt to regain upright status, much like the first bipedal humans.  Has she informed the Incompetent Blowhard of this revelation?  Perhaps that is why we are 7 weeks overdue from the unveiling of version 4.  She further said, and this is close to the actual quote if not it:  “if you are sick a mask doesn’t protect the people you interact with”.  Now I had  no chance of vertical attainment.  I believe the commissioner has been wearing a mask so long that she is suffering from oxygen deprivation and carbon dioxide poisoning, leading to severe off-message syndrome.  But then she ruined it by referring to multiple non-existent studies demonstrating the benefits of masks, for which I was actually grateful as it allowed me to recover my dignity and elevate myself to an appropriate human stature."

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“The Black community has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and that’s not biological but rather due to socioeconomic inequities resulting from racism,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

The infiltration of identity politics in academia must end.

Now.

We should not be accepting this in public health.

Recall, that when the public and officials wanted to close air space from China, Tam and the Liberals said it would be 'racist'.

They put politics above the health of all citizens.

This should not be overlooked and on that alone, Tam was compromised and should have resigned. 

Trump seems to understand this and has ordered 'racial sensitivity' training for Federal employees to cease.

• Trump has called such teachings 'a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue'

I respect him enormously for this move. While the left will see this decision as 'proof' of his racism, I see it as a sane measure to reboot and set the nation back on course.

Seems this chap Howard Ross made a killing off the taxpayer with this stuff.

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I can see this government mandating use outside if there are spikes. I can feel it. People are scared and foolish, and misinformed enough to go for it, even though some European countries are stating to rebel. The other day I observed a guy in an electric car in a mask while a young chap next to him was in a mask....and face shield.

On the same day, I noticed one woman coming towards me in a mask on the sidewalk. So I kept right and there was ample space in case she panicked about social distance. Rather than keep left, she decided to walk around me to my right by walking on Sherbrooke blvd with high traffic. Seem she calculated it was safer to jump onto a street than dare be mauled by my maskless asymptomatic ass. 

The other day I was jogging on a path. Next to it there’s a wide sidewalk. I was heading north and woman coming south. As we approached she, I kid you not, shoved her face into her t-shirt.

Yes. That ‘Dominican Republic’ cotton t-shirt is gonna protect you. That’s how a virus works. It jumps like a flea.

The magnificent macabre irrational mental breakdown of it all. 

Not a hysteria. Nope. No siree. No emotional and psychological scars will remain. No way.

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History of pandemics. Interesting topic indeed.

"In Italy, which along with Portugal had the highest mortality rate in Europe, schools were closed after the first case of the unusually severe hemorrhagic pneumonia; however, the decision to close schools was not simultaneously accepted by health and scholastic authorities (37). Decisions made by health authorities often seemed focused more on reassuring the public about efforts being made to stop transmission of the virus rather than on actually stopping transmission of the virus (35). Measures adopted in many countries disproportionately affected ethnic and marginalized groups. In colonial possessions (e.g., New Caledonia), restrictions on travel affected the local populations (3). The role that the media would play in influencing public opinion in the future began to take shape. Newspapers took conflicting positions on health measures and contributed to the spread of panic. The largest and most influential newspaper in Italy, Corriere della Sera, was forced by civil authorities to stop reporting the number of deaths (150–180 deaths/day) in Milan because the reports caused great anxiety among the citizenry. In war-torn nations, censorship caused a lack of communication and transparency regarding the decision-making process, leading to confusion and misunderstanding of disease-control measures and devices, such as face masks (ironically named “muzzles” in Italian)..."

Plus ca change:

"..The use of segregation or isolation to separate persons suspected of being infected has frequently violated the liberty of outwardly healthy persons, most often from lower classes, and ethnic and marginalized minority groups have been stigmatized and have faced discrimination. This feature, almost inherent in quarantine, traces a line of continuity from the time of plague to the 2009 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic."

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Yet another randomized study cautioning against masks:

"This study is the first RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection. "

Question is: Why do politicians keep ignoring the facts about masks?

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Interesting:

"Since no quantified virus isolates of the 2019-nCoV are currently available, assays designed for detection of the 2019-nCoV RNA were tested with characterized stocks of in vitro transcribed full length RNA (N gene; GenBank accession: MN908947.2) of known titer (RNA copies/μL) spiked into a diluent consisting of a suspension of human A549 cells and viral transport medium (VTM) to mimic clinical specimen."